Novatek Replaces Reserves
Russia's largest independent gas producer Novatek said that, excluding the decline in its share of the Yamal LNG joint venture, its proven reserves were 2.8% higher at end-2016 than a year earlier.
Total proven reserves, including Novatek’s share in joint ventures, aggregated 12,775mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), including 1,755bn m3 of gas and 152mn metric tons of liquids, it said citing a recent audit by DeGolyer & MacNaughton based on US Securities and Exchange Commission methodology.
Net of the decrease in its Yamal LNG stake from 60% at end-2015 to 50.1% at end-2016, as well as the company’s 2016 production, Novatek’s total proven reserves were 0.3% lower – although that still represented a reserve replacement rate of 92% for the year. Novatek added that, at end-2016, its reserve to production ratio was 24 years.
Novatek, the second largest producer of gas in Russia after state-run Gazprom, sold a 9.9% equity stake in Yamal LNG to China's Silk Road Fund for €1.087bn in March 2016. The first production train at Yamal LNG is scheduled to start production later this year and the first of the project's dedicated giant ice-class LNG carriers Christophe de Margerie reached Europe on January 20 from its South Korean shipyard.
Mark Smedley